During Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, beginning April 17, Major League Baseball, MLB, and Brett Butler will join the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation, YBF, to raise awareness about the importance of early detection in head and neck cancers by offering free screenings.

"I'm living proof that early diagnosis and treatment can improve your chances of surviving oral, head and neck cancer," said Butler, throat cancer survivor. "That's why I'm encouraging everyone who is at risk for this potentially deadly disease, especially tobacco and alcohol users, to take advantage of the free screenings throughout the country on April 21. You owe it to your family and loved ones to get yourself checked."

Sponsored by the YBF, you can find information at the MLB website regarding oral, head and neck cancer; a directory of the participating sites throughout the U.S. that will offer free screenings on April 21 and a videotaped message from Butler.

Lou Gehrig Award winner, Butler started his major league baseball career with the Atlanta Braves, and played for the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. The doctors found his cancer while performing a tonsillectomy. Diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the tonsil, Butler credits his early diagnosis and treatment with saving his life.

According to the YBF, twenty years ago, Yul Brynner, dying from lung cancer, made a television commercial that said, "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do, just don't smoke."  The public service announcement remains one of the most memorable anti-smoking statements ever made.